


I Will Follow You Into the Light

by elizabeth_darcy



Series: Reylo Adventures [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, One Shot, Undercover, Undercover!Rey, undercover!kylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 03:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6549085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabeth_darcy/pseuds/elizabeth_darcy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey is undercover. Kylo is also undercover. They're assigned to engineering jobs on the First Order.</p><p>Neither expected to find any joy in the tasks, and they definitely did not expect to find that joy within a coworker. But maybe their coworkers aren't who they seem...</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Will Follow You Into the Light

**Author's Note:**

> ((Title based around Death Cab For Cutie's song "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"))  
> (( reysgaybae.tumblr.com/post/142755179639 ))

Rey collected her food and joined Matt at their usual lunch table. She'd been at this First Order base for the past three weeks and in that time she had already fallen into a routine. A routine that she was finding herself to actually... enjoy? Yes, maybe the food was slop and her cot was like a rock, but she could do worse. And yes, maybe the ship was full of evil doers who would have her head the second they found out her true identity, but she'd managed to find some people who were actually really amazing. Like her engineering partner, whom, despite his  _constant_  screw ups, she actually enjoyed being with. He had a little bit of a temper, sure, but he was honestly one of the sweetest people she'd ever met. Sometimes he would give her little gifts. Just little things which were easily been smuggled in, like food that  _wasn't_  awful or little trinkets that reminded him of her. And they had lots of conversations. Sometimes about nothing, sometimes about everything (well, not enough to reveal her identity- but she felt really bad about that). Once, at the beginning of their friendship, they had gotten locked in a closet together during a job accidentally. It took  _four_  hours until someone found them, so naturally they had had lots of time to converse. They had started talking about pointless things like what color they would paint their room if they were allowed to do that, and they ended up bonding over how they had both spent the majority of their lives without any family or friends. About how it wasn't unusual to cry themselves to sleep or to cuddle their pillow at night, longing for a real person to be there instead. She wasn't sure why she allowed her guard down so much to tell him something like that. Rey didn't ignore her own weaknesses, but she would never  _dare_  share them with others. Especially others whom she had literally just met.

But... there was just something about him. He was so open and nonjudgmental and whenever she revealed things like that his eyes would light up with the realization that he wasn't the only one who did that. It was nice to know that she wasn't as different as she always thought.

Rey actually felt herself developing feelings for him, too. Not just for his serious side, but even for the bumbling idiot who would mess up his sentences whenever their skin brushed. She had grown to really admire his constant blushing and sometimes-painful-but-usually-pretty-adorable awkwardness. And so what his stupid glasses were  _always_  crooked and his hair was never tame? She didn't mind. That just made him even more endearing. His long face and goofy smile were just part of his charm. If you could call it charm...

"Hey," she greeted, sitting down.

"Hey," he replied, softly. Rey raised an eyebrow which he didn't notice. It was unusual for him to be quiet and not overly enthusiastic when greeting her. After they had established a minimal friendship, he had began passionately spilling everything about him _all_ the time. She could tell it was because she was the first person- maybe in his entire life- to ever listen to him, let alone relate to him. She didn't mind, though. She'd always wanted a friend. Someone to know everything about her and someone she could know everything about. And here he was. Besides, she always felt guilty when the topic changed to her; she hated lying to him.

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked, out-of-the-blue, interrupting Rey's thoughts.

"Shoot," she said, taking another bite of her lunch.

He paused for a second, considering how to phrase it, before asking, "What do think about Kylo Ren?"

Rey shrugged, "I don't really like him."  _Hah! That's an understatement._

"Why?" Matt said slowly and gently. He was paying close attention to her words.

Rey furrowed her eyebrows. Why did he care about what she thought of him?

She shook her head. "He kills people," Rey responded, trying not to list every reason why she hated him, "He's not a good guy."

Matt didn't reply for a little while.

Rey finished up the food on her tray and stood up to put it away when he spoke again,

"What if he was?"

She sat back down slightly, "What if Kylo was a good person?"

"Yeah... Like, if he were to change? Could you like him then?"

Rey settled even more into her seat. She couldn't tell why her answer was so important to him. Or why he was asking in the first place.

"I don't know. I don't think so. He can't unkill the people he killed."

•••••

Matt was really quiet for the rest of the day. Rey didn't like it. She wanted her friend back. Why did he care so much about her opinion of Kylo? I mean, she knew he was more loyal to the Order than most, but to care so deeply about her opinion of Kylo was a little extreme.

"Matt?" She asked a few hours after their conversation, dropping the two wires in her hands and turning around to face him. He was sitting on the ground next to her, cross-legged and waiting to give her the next tool she needed.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you care what I thought about Kylo?"

"I don't know. Just curious."

Rey shook her head, "No, it's more than that. I can tell. You're upset."

Matt swallowed, nervously. Why was he nervous? He shook his head, "No, it's just... other stuff going on in my life."

"What other stuff? We spend almost every second with each other, what could have happened in your life that I don't know about?"

"Just... past things I've been thinking about. Stuff before I came to work here."

"Stuff that has to do with Kylo Ren?"

"He's really not that bad, you know. I've worked with him a bit and I've gotten to know him. He  _is_  a good guy behind the mask."

"How do you mean?"

"He's really cool. And super hot. I hear he has an eight pack."

Rey snorted, "Where'd you hear that?"

"From a reliable source," he defended.

"If you say so," she turned back to her work.

She watched from the corner of her eye as he toyed with the wrench in his hand. He flipped it around in his hands for a long while before speaking up again, "He seems like your type."

Rey laughed and turned to him, "My type? Are you trying to set me up with him or something?"

He didn't answer that.

Rey's smile turned serious, "You are," she realized. "Why?"

"He's seen you around," he said suddenly, "He likes you."

Rey tried to hide her genuine fear. Had Kylo recognized her? Did he ask Matt to bring her to him so he could kill her?  _Oh no._

"He likes me?" Rey joked, playing along and acting as best she could, "I'm just an engineer. I'm sure there are tons of other girls around here for him to like."

"No," he said simply, "He likes  _you_. You should give him a chance, get to know him better."

How should she respond to that?! The guy she had a crush on was genuinely trying to set her up with the evilest man she knew. She turned back to the wires and grumbled, "Maybe I don't want to get to know him."

"Why not?" He seemed...  _offended_?

"Maybe... maybe I like someone else." Was she seriously about to admit her feelings right  _now_? Looked like it.

She could hear Matt's anger, " _Who_?"

She smiled at his cluelessness and turned to him.

She put her hand on his face and pulled him into a kiss. His eyes were wide with surprise and she chuckled to herself. Did he really not know?

When she pulled away, he was blushing from ear to ear, still shell shocked.

"I like  _you_."

Matt looked like he was processing something in his brain. Or... was he debating with himself? She couldn't really tell what he was thinking. Rey watched him hesitantly, anxiously awaiting his reply. Did he not like her back? She had gotten the feeling that they both liked each other... Maybe all those awkward conversations with him weren't his poor attempts at flirting like she thought. Maybe he didn't actually care for her beyond friendship. Or at all.

"Kylo is super powerful..." He said, finally.

Rey threw her hands into the air, exasperated, "I don't care about power! And I don't care about whatever you've heard about his body! Come on, Matt," she reached out and took his hand, "I like  _you_. Not Kylo,  _you_."

He stared at her for a moment uncomfortably "I- I have to go," he stumbled, standing up and quickly exiting the room.

Rey groaned and leaned her back against the wall. This boy was going to be the death of her...

•••••

Matt didn't show up to work the next day. Rey worried if she would ever see him again. Maybe he had relocated to a different sector in order to get away from her...

Why did she have to kiss him? She'd ruined everything. But maybe that was for the best. Less attachments meant that it'd be easier to leave here and go back home.

Rey bit her lip as she headed down the empty hallway to the next job. Maybe it would make _leaving_ easier, but it sure didn't make the next week easy. Nor the weeks when she was home. Stars, why did she miss him so much already?

A gloved hand stifled her scream as she was suddenly dragged into a secret corridor. She thrashed her arms around and pulled away from his grasp as he closed a door behind them. She whipped around to attack and found herself face to face with a gleaming black mask.

Her stomach dropped.  _Oh no. Oh no, oh no. He found out. I don't have enough time to deactivate my Force ring in order to fight him. He's going to kill me. And it's all my fault for letting myself be distracted._  


But she wasn't prepared to go down without a fight. She swung her fists and kicked and tried to make as much noise as possible so someone would hear her and come looking for the source of the ruckus.

"Stop!" He said, blocking her well placed kicks, " _Tessa, stop!_ "

Rey froze. ' _Tessa.'_  If he knew who she _really_ was, he wouldn't have called her Tessa. She almost collapsed with relief but steeled herself. She was not going to make that mistake again. No matter what Matt did, she wasn't going to abandon her mission. She had to stay focused.

"Tessa," Kylo said again, looking directly at her eyes from behind the dark glass, "I'm  _not_  going to hurt you."

But... if he didn't know that she was Rey, then... the whole situation with Matt... did that mean that Matt _wasn't_ lying when he said that Kylo...

She shuddered, shoving off that thought immediately. Nope. _No way._  Clearly this was some misunderstanding...

"There's something I need to tell you."

Rey's heart began to beat faster. Tell her what? What could he possibly have to tell her? This was the first time "Tessa" was meeting him... unless he was going to bring up what Matt discussed.  _Shit_.

She waited, but he just stood there. She watched as eventually, he slid his hands under his masks and released the pressurization. It made a hissing sound and Rey was terrified as to why he might be removing it.

  
_What if he was going to try and kiss me?_ A whole new level of panic fled through her at that realization and she held her breath for what was to come next.

"Hi," the man in front of her said, timidly.

His hair was longer and a different color and he wasn't wearing glasses but she recognized him instantly.

Rey almost passed out.

"Oh my stars," she said, breathlessly. Her stomach was whirling and she felt like she was about to throw up, " _Matt?_ "

"My name's actually Kylo," he answered, weakly.

Rey hated herself. She had  _trusted_  this man with things she hadn't even dared to tell  _Finn_. She had spent her free time wondering if they could bring him back to the rebel base with them and if they could be together, travelling the galaxy and fighting evil. She had spent almost every minute awake for the last three weeks talking with him. She had  _kissed_ him. She had  _loved_  him. "Had" being the key word.

She'd wasted so much time which she could have spent dedicated to her mission- a mission which was the first step to taking him down. All wasted on  _him._  


Rey felt her legs giving under her and Kylo's hands reached out to catch her before she lost her balance.

She broke from his grip immediately, " _Don't_ touch me," she ordered, harshly.

"Tess," he said, unmistakable, deep pain flashing across his face.

And it wasn't fair. On one hand, she wanted Kylo Ren to _boil_ in that pain. To sit and suffer in the grave he dug with his own bare hands. But that pain wasn't on Kylo's face. It was on  _Matt's_. And everything in her body told her to reach forward and comfort him. To fix it. Matt was upset and that didn't feel right.

She shook her head and walked backward. She couldn't keep thinking of Matt and Kylo as different people. They weren't and that was something she had to accept no matter how much it hurt, "No. Don't talk to me ever again."

"Tessa!" He called after her.

She was almost gone when she heard him whimper, " _Please,_ Tess _. I love you."_  


She squeezed her eyes shut to block out the tears and opened the door back to the main hallway.

•••••

"We found these three trying to escape base. They're traitors," a stormtrooper explained to Kylo, throwing the rebels down on their knees.

She didn't even want to look up at him. She  _couldn't_. She kept her eyes trained at his thick boots.

No matter how much she had told herself that she didn't love him anymore, she did. And she didn't want him to find out about who she really was _this_ way.

Maybe it would be simpler if he knew who she was. He wouldn't love her anymore and the decision to stop seeing him would no longer be in her own hands. Maybe he would kill her or lock her up and torture her for the rest of her life and she could stop spending her nights wondering if maybe he _had_ changed or eventually would, like he said he would. Wondering if she'd done the right thing by leaving him that day.

She could feel Kylo's eyes burning into the top of her head as he stood above her, silently.

She swallowed when he finally spoke, his voice altered by the mask, "Take the two men and throw them in cells for the time being until we can decide what to do with them. Leave the girl and me alone."

The stormtroopers gave a brief nod and dragged Rey's two friends away. She felt guilty.  _So_  guilty. They were going to suffer and/or die, and maybe if she hadn't been so wrapped up in her own affairs she could've focused on the mission and picked a better time for escape. Rey stopped breathing when the door shut behind the guards, leaving only her and him.

She waited. Every second was agony. She saw him finally begin to move and flinched at a possible strike against her, but nothing happened. She looked back up to see that he had knelt down to meet her eyes. She watched as he slowly removed the mask.

Her heart snapped when she saw that he was just as distraught and wrecked about all of this as she was.

"What are you doing?" He almost whispered, "You're a  _rebel_?" He felt betrayed. It was all over his face and it was all Rey could do not to cry.

She let out a shaky breath, "More so than you know."

He searched her eyes, not sure what she meant.

His eyes pleaded for her to relieve the situation. He wanted some form of explanation that didn't end in betrayal. Even if it was some awful excuse that no one would ever be stupid enough to believe. He wanted any scrap of a reason to not to punish her.

"I'll tell you if you promise to let my friends go," she bartered. It was a ridiculous offer; she knew. He had dozens of ways to get the information out of her that would cost him nothing.

" _I_  don't decide that," he burst, roughly, scaring her with his sudden volume, "Don't you think if I _did_ we wouldn't be in this situation?!"

She leaned backward slightly and searched his eyes. _He would've let her go if not for Snoke._  


He still cared about her enough to protect her? Now she had to tell him. She _owed_ it to him.

She scoffed inwardly. Who would've thought that she would've ever owed Kylo Ren anything?

She looked down and pressed her left thumb to the ring on her right hand, waiting the painfully long time it would take for the ring to accept her print.

" _Is that_..." His voice trailed off as his mouth went dry with realization.

The ring beeped as it cleared her finger print and the Force shield deactivated.

Each felt all the wind escape them as they each sensed the others strong Force presence.

" _Rey_?" He breathed.

She nodded, and the tears were falling now.

"That's why you..."

She nodded more.

To her shock, she found that he had reached his hand out to rest on her face. She put hers on top of his and cried harder. Through her watery vision, she saw as a tear escaped his eye, too.

They sat like that for several minutes, taking in their situation and what all of this meant for them.

Abruptly, his hand finally pulled away and she heard him stand up and move across the room, as she knew he would eventually. This secret was just too big for him to accept. She knew that. Then why did it still hurt so much? She listened to him pace, his cape flapping behind him as she consoled herself. She wiped away her tears. She was  _Rey_. She was stronger than this mess of tears. She took deep breaths to calm down when he finally spoke again.

His words cut through the silence with a determined verdict, "I'll let you go."

Rey's mouth fell open and her eyes widened with utter shock. She had thought he was going to sentence her to _death_.

"You're letting me _go_?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" He barked back. Her jaw set at his aggression, but she didn't blame him. They both knew he shouldn't be doing this and that _he_ was going to be the one to suffer for it.

She shook her head, "But Snoke... he'll punish you... what if he kills you?"

"I'm letting you go and that's not up for debate," he said through grit teeth.

"But-"

"No!" He shouted, "You're leaving. Put your ring back on. You'll stay in the cell tonight and then leave early in the morning. I'll guide you through the back corridors to an escape pod. It'll be large, and it will fit your two friends easily," he had now grabbed her arm, retrieved his mask, and was leading her out of the room.

Rey just let him. It was clear that he wasn't going to change his mind, and she was grateful for the amount of generosity he was gifting her. He was already beating himself up over it and she knew that he didn't need her stating all the things he would have to endure to let her go; he himself already knew all of them too well.

•••••

Rey looked up and around at the flashing lights and blazing alarms.

"I knew it! He was trapping us!" One rebel named Steve accused, moving toward Kylo to hit him.

"Stop it!" She pushed him back angrily, "Just look at him, he had no idea!"

" _Sure_ ," he grunted. Rey growled and he abandoned the conversation with a scoff.

"Go," Kylo ordered, nudging her onto the ramp.

She grabbed his hand, " _Come with us._ "

"Rey," he shook his head, "You  _know_  I can't."

"No, no I don't know that! You are in charge of yourself, not Snoke, not Hux, not anyone in the First Order.  _You._  Come with us and you don't have to  _kill_  anymore. Snoke won't punish you for helping me. You won't have to wear that stupid mask that hides your bright eyes or your adorable grin," she smiled, "And we can be together," she interlocked their fingers.

He tried to shake her hand off, "Rey, please don't-"

"Why? You  _told_  me how lonely you are. I can _feel_ it and it aches so much. I'm lonely, too, Kylo. We can be there for each other."

"Rey," he said, seriously, warning her not to continue this debate.

"What are you getting here that's so important?!" she shouted, "Don't you want to be  _happy_ , for once?! You've  _told_  me that that's all you want! That's all you've  _ever_  wanted! You're  _never_  going to find any happiness here. Killing people to get power isn't going to fill the empty space in your bed and it's not going to fill the empty space in your heart! But you know what will? Being surrounded by people who actually care about you! People who actually love you!" She stumbled after saying love. She'd... she'd never said before. She thought about adding 'like your mother' but she knew if anything would bring him home, it wouldn't be his mother. She hadn't been able to this entire time. It would have to be Rey. She repeated it, "Kylo, I  _love_  you."

He pleaded for her to stop, " _Rey_ , no, I-"

She leaned forward and kissed him, praying to the universe that this would work. She pulled away as the thunder of stormtroppers marching grew louder, " _Please."_  


  
_"REN!_ " General Hux shouted, his hostile voice echoing in the large hanger, "Step away from the girl!"

Kylo looked over his shoulder slightly, then back at Rey.

The troops had begun firing all over the escape pod in an attempt to hit something important that would break it, but so far they were avoiding Rey because Kylo stood in between them. But they wouldn't for long.

"You have five seconds to move or we'll shoot you, too, Ren!"

Kylo looked deeply into Rey's eyes for a moment before nodding and whispering, "Okay."

"Three! Two!"

Rey's eyes lit up and she grasped his hand tightly, sprinting onto the ship and into safety just before they began to open fire. Steve immediately shut the door behind them. They could hear the pelting of bullets and Hux' muffled shouts.

"What's he doing here?!" Steve yelled as Rey bolted toward the controls.

" _I'm_ the pilot, I decide who comes on the ship," she explained, flipping switches to start it up, "And I say he stays, so he's staying. Got it?"

"No! I don't! He's _Kylo Ren_. He's going to kill us and you've led him straight into somewhere where we have no escape! Can't you see this is just what he wants? He's playing you!"  
"He's _staying_!" She roared, turning back to face him, "If you would rather get off of here and risk your chances with the hundreds of troopers outside, be my guest! Otherwise, I expect you to not say another word against it for the rest of the trip!"

She whipped back around furiously and finished starting up the ship before zooming out of the base.

•••••

"Hey," Kylo said, sitting next to her in the control room. They'd left the First Order base about an hour ago and she could've left the ship on auto-pilot, but Rey had stayed there to familiarize herself with the controls just in case something went wrong later.

"Your escape pods are pretty state of the art, you know. You should probably pay the designer some more. I mean, it's not the best ship I've ever seen but it's pretty high up there, especially considering that it's only an escape pod. Your proper ships must be outstanding."

He shrugged, "I wouldn't know. Never understood any of this piloting stuff. Han never really taught me anything..."

She nodded, awkwardly. Hearing him call his father 'Han' brought her back to the real world. What were they going to do now? How would this relationship work? Would she call him Kylo? Or Ben? Or  _Matt_? Would he be kept in a cell for the rest of his life? Would he be executed for his crimes? She didn't think General Organa would ever allow that to happen, but it was a possibility. And what _about_ General Organa? What would happen between the two of them, now that he was on the Light side? Was he technically even  _on_ the Light side? Or had he only chosen Light because _she_ was there? What if they didn't work out and he returned to the Dark side just as quickly as he had joined the Light side?

This all scared her. The uncertainty of it all.

"That was pretty intense, what you said when we were leaving," Kylo spoke up, finally, "Why didn't you just kick me off? You don't even know if I'm really good or not.  _I_ don't know if I'm really good or not. You have no reason to trust me."

"But I do trust you. I didn't believe for a second-"

"No, you don't. I can sense it. You _doubt_ me."

She stared at him before taking a long breath, "I... I don't know what's going to happen. To you. To me. To _us_. I don't know, and I have no way of knowing. But I don't doubt that you would never do anything to hurt me. Ever. Yeah, so we don't know where you stand between Light and Dark. But I know there's good  _in_ you."

He let out a bitter laugh, "Maybe deep,  _deep_ down, but it's definitely not the majority of me." He shook his head, "What if I... what if I _do_ hurt you?"

"You won't."

"I don't even know who I am anymore, Rey!" He nearly shouted. He swallowed and whispered, "I don't know what I'm capable of."

"But _I_ do. You're  _good_."

"No, I'm not."

"I disagree. 'Tessa' found it within an _hour_ of being your coworker. And she fell in love with it. _I_ fell in love with it." She reached forward and took his hand, "Everything's going to work out. We'll work it all out when it comes to that. We'll do it together."

Kylo's eyes slowly looked up to her. She smiled and leaned forward to hug him. They embraced for a long time before Kylo whispered in her ear with a shaky voice that indicated he had been crying,

" _Thank you_."

**Author's Note:**

> Good? Bad? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ You decide! Drop a comment.
> 
> This was originally meant to be short and silly but then I realized it was too similar to other Matt fics so I made some small little changes. The single change of moving the location of where he revealed his identity LITERALLY changed the ENTIRE story 180 degrees and now there's all these emotions and tears? Jeez louise! The ending was gonna be a "Screw our differences; let's just be together for tonight" and now they've ended up escaping together!
> 
> Well I hope ya'll enjoyed that wild ride!  
> Check out my tumblrs (star wars: reysgaybae.tumblr.com and my main one which is musicals and humor at were-what-killed-the-dinosaurs.tumblr.com ).
> 
> Keep an eye out for possible future other one shots! I have a couple rough drafts and I'll see if I can polish them up enough to be published! And thanks to all of you who advised me to work on it and publish it! I hope it lived up to your expectations!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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